Pain, Fever & Inflammation

Gua Sha / Scraping

Fever, headache, chills, muscle pain, 'catching wind'

AilmentsFeverHeadacheChillsMuscle PainWind Illness

Gua Sha / Scraping — traditional remedy ingredients

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Region

China / Vietnam

Tradition

Chinese & Vietnamese traditional medicine; also Cambodia, Indonesia

Era

Shang Han Lun text, ~220 CE; spread to Vietnam 5th-7th c.

Science

Partial

Today

Widely Practiced Today

Instructions

Ingredients

A smooth-edged tool: a coin, a porcelain spoon, or a purpose-made gua sha tool

Warming oil or balm (such as Tiger Balm, or a plain vegetable oil)

Step-by-Step

Clean the tool and the skin to be worked on (traditionally the back, chest, neck, or shoulders).

Apply the oil or balm generously to the skin — this is essential; scraping dry skin causes unnecessary irritation.

Hold the tool at a low angle (roughly 15 to 30 degrees) against the skin.

Scrape firmly in one direction (commonly along the spine and outward from the center), repeating each stroke several times in the same direction.

Continue until red or purple marks (petechiae) appear on the skin — in the tradition, the intensity of the marks is read as a sign of how much "wind" or stagnation was present.

The marks typically fade within a few days to a week.

Tips

Always use a clean, smooth-edged tool — never a rough or sharp object.

Not recommended for anyone on blood thinners, with fragile or thin skin (such as elderly people), or who is pregnant.

Never scrape over broken skin, active rashes, or areas with visible bruising already present.

The resulting marks can be mistaken for signs of physical abuse by those unfamiliar with the practice — this has led to real misunderstandings in Western medical and school settings.

Traditional logic

Belief that illness-causing 'wind' is released by scraping, shown by resulting red marks

Background & history

Also practiced in Cambodia, Myanmar & Indonesia (kerokan/kerikan); a similar Chinese variant is called quat sha or 'spooning.' Because the marks resemble bruising, the practice has sometimes been mistaken for abuse by medical staff unfamiliar with the tradition, particularly in diaspora settings.

Where it comes from

China / Vietnam

Highlighted on the map: Vietnam, China

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This is a historical and cultural reference, not medical advice. Many of these remedies have never been scientifically validated, and folk reasoning (humoral theory, “hot/cold” classifications, spiritual causation) reflects older explanatory traditions rather than modern medicine. Ratings reflect community opinion, not clinical evidence.

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